five oil thieving suspects arrested in Ogun

Five suspected oil thieves were on Tuesday arrested by the officials of the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps, NSCDC, Ogun State Command during an evening patrol.

The suspects are; Banwo Olaide, 38 of No 10, Jalalugbo street, lkorodu, Lagos State, Kabiru Rahimi, 13, Tunde Rahimi 25, Disu Toheeb,27,and Jamiu Koleosho 33.

All the suspects were arrested at Pipeline area around Ibafo, in Obafemi- Owode local government area of Ogun State.

Items recovered from them include; two Ford buses with registration number, Lagos – GGE 943XL and Lagos – APP 123XH,eighty seven pieces of 50 litres kegs containing Premium Motor Spirit (PMS), five handsets,cash sum of fifty thousand naira, as well as tools and documents.

According to a statement signed by the Public Relations Officer,PRO of NSCDC, Ogun state Command, Kareem Olanrewaju, one of the suspects, Banwo Olaide, who is from Ijebu-Ode claimed that he was introduced into the business by one Sunkanmi recently.

He further stated that he buys each of the 50 litres at four thousand naira while he sells between five thousand five hundred naira and six thousand naira depending on the market situation.

Banwo stressed further that he knew that Premium Motor Spirit(PMS) was siphoned through vandalism, but he could not tell which place in particular was being vandalized, adding that, the point at which he bought it from vandals is not far from pipeline area.

He stated that, this time was his third occasion, explaining that, “the first and second time were fruitless due to seizure of the product by security agents.

“He ventured into it on the third occasion in order to recover money lost on the previous two trips”, he narrated.

Another suspect, Disu Toheeb, 27, said he was arrested while he was trying to secure his brother’s release.

According to him,” my brother called me to bring money for ‘settlement’,so that he will be released. As I got there with the cash,I was pounced on and was arrested by the civil defence. I am a shoe maker and was never part of the vandals”.

Kabiru Rahimi stated that he is the younger brother to one of the suspects, Tunde Rahimi and also act as his motor boy.

For Jamiu Koleosho, the NSCDC spokesman said, “he said he was on his way back to Lagos from Abeokuta where he went to off – load some wooden materials, when he was stopped at Ibafo to help them carry some PMS loaded in jerrycans.

“He said, he asked them to pay ten thousand naira from there to Bamgbose in Lagos. Then, they took over the bus and drove into the bush and later came out, fully loaded with PMS.

Commenting on the arrest, the State Commandant of Ogun state Command, Commandant Aboluwoye Akinkinwade explained that the new strategy adopted by the Corps in the State is actually yielding positive results,as he has deployed more patrol vehicles to areas which Joint Military and Civil Defence task force on anti – vandalism does not cover.

Aboluwoye stressed that, it will not be business as usual for vandals in the state.

He declared the Command’s readiness to intensify efforts to curb vandalism, maintained that, “those who were arrested, will be charged to court after investigation,” Aboluwaye vowed.